This morning we attended church at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in San Salvador. This is the home church of Bishop Medardo Gomez, the Bishop of the Lutheran Church in ElSalvador. He has an amazing personal story, but more on that in a moment.
We were welcomed extremely warmly. On a personal note, I had a brief chance to catch up withMaria Trinidad, whom I have met on each of my previous trips. She runs both a homeless shelter and a sort of boarding house/hostel connected with the Lutheran Church, and she and her family are amazing.
But we were welcomed warmly by everyone, even by those who could not speak English. Pr. Tom was drafted to robe up andassist in presiding. As he tells it, he didn’t speak Spanish, and the pastor giving him directions didn’t have any English, so figuring out whatto do was pretty interesting… But they must have managed well, because Pr. Tom helped out through Confirmation andCommunion!
Carolyn also had the chance to read the Gospel. It was read in Spanish first, and then Carolyn read it in English, using a bilingual Bible that was provided by Carlos Avalos. Carlos is the Habitat El Salvador director of church relations, and he spent the day with us (at least until we left San Salvador).
At the end of the service, each of us was presented with a small wooden cross necklace and a hug by one of the children of the congregation. One little girl, in particular, was a most excellent hugger!
After the service, we all went back to Bishop Gomez’s office, where he spoke a bit about the work that the El Salvador Lutheran Church is doing. They are focusing a great deal on building communities, and most of their new members are people who are already familiar with Christianity, mostly Catholicism. It’s a small but growing church.
Bishop Gomez was also one of the voices that roundly criticized the government during the civil war in the 1980s. As a result, he had many threats on his life, and for a while had an international escort with him at all times. He was arrested several times, and his war experience sort of culminated with the story of the subversive cross.
After church we went for lunch at the El Arco Café, the place overlooking San Salvador where the group ate last year. We could tell there had been several new developments built (somewhat ruining part of the view), but the flowers were still beautiful and there were lots of clever and fun decorative items around.
From there we headed northwest, to the hotel that will be our home for the rest of the week. I have stayed here before, and it is a beautiful place—trees and flowers EVERYWHERE! We are staying in a series of small cabins, and then we head to the restaurant in the middle for breakfast and dinner. There are small porches in front of every cabin, and lots of open seating in the restaurant area where we can just sit and enjoy being with each other. It can get a little chilly at night since we’re so high up, but that’ll feel good after working in the sun all day!
We also met up with our last team member, Marti. She was vacationing in the time leading up to this, so she was only able to join us starting today. But we are all together now, and ready to go to work tomorrow!
At the end of the service, each of us was presented with a small wooden cross necklace and a hug by one of the children of the congregation. One little girl, in particular, was a most excellent hugger!After the service, we all went back to Bishop Gomez’s office, where he spoke a bit about the work that the El Salvador Lutheran Church is doing. They are focusing a great deal on building communities, and most of their new members are people who are already familiar with Christianity, mostly Catholicism. It’s a small but growing church.Bishop Gomez was also one of the voices that roundly criticized the government during the civil war in the 1980s. As a result, he had many threats on his life, and for a while had an international escort with him at all times. He was arrested several times, and his war experience sort of culminated with the story of the subversive cross.
After church we went for lunch at the El Arco Café, the place overlooking San Salvador where the group ate last year. We could tell there had been several new developments built (somewhat ruining part of the view), but the flowers were still beautiful and there were lots of clever and fun decorative items around.
From there we headed northwest, to the hotel that will be our home for the rest of the week. I have stayed here before, and it is a beautiful place—trees and flowers EVERYWHERE! We are staying in a series of small cabins, and then we head to the restaurant in the middle for breakfast and dinner. There are small porches in front of every cabin, and lots of open seating in the restaurant area where we can just sit and enjoy being with each other. It can get a little chilly at night since we’re so high up, but that’ll feel good after working in the sun all day!We also met up with our last team member, Marti. She was vacationing in the time leading up to this, so she was only able to join us starting today. But we are all together now, and ready to go to work tomorrow!
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